


Laugh until the world bleeds black

by Kayuri



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Episode Ardyn Prologue Spoilers, Episode Ardyn Spoilers, F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24724843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kayuri/pseuds/Kayuri
Summary: He always knew. The bitter edge of his gift. He did not banish the Starscourge. He felt the Claws, heard the Laughter.‐--------------------------------------He laughs until the world bleeds black, and he does not know if its him or the thousands of Daemons underneath his skin
Relationships: Aera Mirus Fleuret/Ardyn Izunia
Kudos: 5





	Laugh until the world bleeds black

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who played and finished Episode Ardyn? I did, and hoo boy, what a ride. Ardyn is one of my most favorite villains, which may or may not be because of Darin DePaul's wonderful voice work, but also because he is so wonderfully complex and dramatic. As someone who took theater classes, I can appreciate that. Anyways, I felt very sorry for Ardyn at the end of that DLC, and personally, I believe he'd have gone with the "Defy Fate" choice. This is a small thing that is rather self indulgent, and written at 20 minutes after midnight, so... yeah. I wrote this because I only had the last two sentences in my mind, and it wanted a story.

Ardyn knew. He always knew. Taking in the disease instead of banishing it was the bitter edge of his gift, but he hid it well, and hid it long. He felt the disease sinking its claws in his flesh, his mind. He staved it off. His body worked too well with his magic for the sickness to truly take hold. He met Her later on, after a particularly nasty bout of healing a person afflicted, already halfway to daemon. Ardyn won, but a thousand new voices snarled in his mind, clawed at the mental chains. She stopped by him when he took to rest at the wayside, talked with him. Aera. Sweet, sweet Aera. Sylleblossom in her hair and dress so white it may as well have been spun of clouds and snow. The one thing he would forever remember clearly, no matter the taint.

Chains rattled.

Somnus didn’t take kindly to him „dallying" with the Oracle. Ardyn wondered at times if his brother ever spent a thought on the idea that arranged marriages weren’t everything. Then again, Somnus didn’t take kindly to many things. Peasants in his way, the Starscourge, the way Ardyn opted for healing the masses instead of burning pyres and grazing down villages. Aera was just the latest in a long chain of things. Ardyn wondered when his little brother became so… edged. Stony. When did his little brother loose the softness, the kindness he had shown when young? Only years later Ardyn got the idea that maybe, the Starscourge took more than just lives.

A low moan of pain.

Pyres. Pyres everywhere. Smoke was thick, people cried in pain, and in the midst of it all, Gilgamesh and Somnus stood, faces devoid of anything but satisfaction. No people left meant no more infection. Far, far away, just near enough to see the smoke and pyres, a lone Healer stood, horror and pain on his face. Pyreburners, murderers. Ardyn had hoped he’d be able to save these people, and yet… he was too late. His brother’s hounds had arrived before he did, and razed the village to the ground. Tears slid down his face. A silent prayer was sent to the Hexatheon. May the Astrals and Etro have mercy on these poor souls.

Old wounds tore open, closing again in a matter of seconds.

Blood. So much blood. It was everywhere, blood everywhere. Red, red, red, his hands, the ground, _Aera-_

Somnus. Ardyn gazed up at his brother, face contorted in a snarl, tears, blood, scourge mixing together in a horrible mixture. Somnus killed her. Somnus knew how much she meant, and he _killed_ her! A wordless scream tore itself from Ardyn’s throat at Somnus‘ cruel sneer, the sound of a thousand daemons screeching in his mind, alongside him. Claws rending at the restraints, that tore free when the bite of ice cold Solheim-steel cut into him. Ardyn howled, a cloud of Scourge escaping before he managed to wrangle it back inside, crawling to the Crystal. He needed it’s power, he needed to save Aera! He was rejected. His brother named him Monster, Adagium. They tried to kill him as well. It didn’t stick.

Water dripped on stone. The scuff of boots. Light. He was freed, only to be thrust into something that was a cruel daydream. He, the Healer? More like the great Sickness. People left, right, center. Everyone fell to the disease he had absorbed, too many, too many daemons. Then the Lucians came. They woke up Ifrit. Ardyn turned Ifrit. He howled in pain.

Memories danced alongside his eye. Bahamut, the Draconian did not want him to be a Kingslayer? Aryn snarled, black tainting his teeth. The thrice damned Astral should have thought up a different plan then. He would not bow before a fate such as this! He refused! He wasn’t a sacrificial lamb! He paid dearly for it. Oh so dearly. Aera, dear, dear, sweet Aera appeared before him, her face just like he remembered. Then, pain. Once twice, three times. She said something, but he couldn’t hear her. He snarled mentally, cursing the Draconian for ripping her out of the afterlife, for controlling her like this. More pain. Then, blinding light.

He awoke on stone. A field awaited him outside. Wheat, and that tree he took rest under oh so many years ago, the tree where he and Aera always met… the Claws tore stronger and stronger at him. He felt them drive gouges, felt how they broke out… then watched as he took the steps towards Aera, towards Somnus… He howled, furious and hurt, when his dagger slid into them. Then, laughter. Laughter so broken, it could only have come from madness itself. He laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and he did not know if it was him or the daemons under his skin. He laughed until the world bled black.


End file.
